Silent Hill : Homecoming
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Silent Hill: Homecoming
Not scary is what best describes this latest Silent Hill game and the first one of this “next” generation of consoles you would expect them to have the ability to scare us to death. With all of the power of our next gen consoles, with the many years of similar games and possible gameplay improvements you would think Konami would not have a chance to mess up one of the best survival horror game series ever. But sadly they missed the boat in almost every way with Homecoming and by far this is one of those games that should have been the top games of the year.
Homecoming is about Alex, a war vet who comes home and enters the walking horror show called Silent Hill. Starting out in the nearby town of Shepherd’s Glen, Alex’s home town, you search for your lost brother and try to solve the mystery of what is happening and why is everyone disappearing. Eventually Alex finds himself in Silent Hill where the entire town has also undergone a huge change. Searching for his brother, fighting strange monsters and just trying to survive the horror of what is going on Alex is constantly on the run trying to stay alive.
While the Silent Hill games have never been leaders in the gameplay category compared to other games, it has always been passable and usually fun, with the horror side of the game overshadowing any gameplay issues. But overall the latest version of Silent Hill has not improved on the gameplay since the original, still relying on the same tried and true gameplay we have played a dozen times before.
With a bad 3rd person camera, clunky inventory system and one of the oldest and by far down right terrible save system bring down what could have been one of the top ten games of the year. The camera system is annoying because it is what has become the standard behind the shoulder 3rd person view, but with this view you are not allowed to change the actual view around. How 1998 of the developers isn’t it? The inventory system is also rather bad with the right button for weapons and left button for standard items, but when you need to switch fast it seems to never work right. Very annoying when this happens in combat and it ends up getting you killed often.
Lastly the most annoying part of the game is the save system. You can only save the game at specific points and for some reason they are spread far apart. Sometimes you can only save after 45 minutes or even an hour of gameplay if you are taking your time. This is not so bad, but now days sometimes you only have 20 minutes to play and you want to quickly play the game, you are out of luck. Or you will get stuck in an annoying area and then you want to save, you die and end up losing almost an hour of time.
The Silent Hill games have always used muted colors, with plenty of fog to help achieve the mood, and to well scare the crap out of you. But the fog is over done in this game, especially indoors, an issue we would have expected on the PS1, PS2 even but not a Xbox 360. The indoors have so much fog, the excellent lighting is wasted on the player. I am wondering if this was a design choice or just poor engine development because the over used fog does not add to the fear factor but actually make it kind of lame.
The human characters are not exactly well done, they look good, but they have this plastic look to them almost like a G.I. Joe character with a tan. But this is not the case with the monsters which are excellent, fleshy, and bloody and gore covered. It is a shame the same level of quality was not put into the human characters as the difference in the over look pulls you away.
The level design is by far the best part of the actual graphical design, but the actual quality of the level architecture is low with low quality textures and low poly models. Simple halls with simple rooms and the same goes with the out door levels; they are very basic straight roads with simple small square areas such as parks or front yards. The use of invisible walls, buildings with no use it is obvious the game developers did not try very hard.
Excellent audio all around is the trademark for the Silent Hill franchise and Homecoming is no different. Spooky environmental audio is all over each and every level and if you are one, who scares easily, play this one in the dark with the audio turned up and feel the goose bumps travel across your skin. The music is the same, eerie and subtle music which is just enough to add to the overall feel of the game at the right time.
I was surprised by how good the actual voice over work was in the game for every character you see and meet. Each character is given life by their voice actor in just the right way to make them memorable and believable, even if their part is just a small one.
There is no multiplayer and no replay value to the game other then jumping the difficulty up, which really only makes the game more aggravating then more enjoyable.
If you are a survival horror fan or just a Silent Hill fan you will enjoy this game and it would be worth the buy, but it is not a scary game, at least for me. If you are new to the Silent Hill franchise, just rent this one as it is not a good starter for the series. If you want to be scared, Dead Space is your best bet or Siren on the PS3.
Pros
+ It’s a Silent Hill game, usually the best in survival horror
+ Lots of blood and gore
+ Transitions are very well done
+ Very well done level design
+ Character designs are still very good
+ Excellent audio, including the voice over work
Cons
- Same cliché game we have seen from the survival horror genre over the last few years
- Not scary at all… well maybe for a 5 year old
- Graphics are not very good
- Story is not as good as it should have been… time to kill off the series
- Character designs (humans) are plastic looking
- Low presentation value
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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